United Nations peacekeeping Mission

United Nations peacekeeping forces were initially deployed in the Arab-Israeli zone of conflict upon the inception of the truce truce that effectively ended the 1948-49 war that established Israel's independence. They have continued to be so deployed, in a variety of positions, and with a variety of peacekeeping duties, almost without interruption from that time up to the present day. During that time there were three general Arab-Israeli wars, those of 1956, 1967, and 1973, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and numerous other military clashes, in addition to which armed terrorist or "counter-terrorist" elements have periodically moved through zones under United Nations supervision.

In view of this summary record, it may appear that the United Nations peacekeeping role with respect Israel and its Arab neighbors has been ineffective. This, however, is an incomplete and myopic view of the problem of keeping peace in this troubled region. The most disasterous "failure" of the United Nations peacekeeping mission occurred in 1967, when Egyptian President Abdel Nasser exerted heavy pressure for the suspension of the Sinai operations of the first United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF I). Upon removal of these forces, in May and June of 1967, tensions rapidly escalated in the area, and the 1967 "Six-Day War" was the eventual result (Durch, 1993, pp. 124-25).

This outcome, however, cannot be called a failure of UNEF I; on the contrary, the outbreak of war shortly after

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rce was in place in the Sinai after 1967, until in the wake of the 1973 war, a second United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II) was established in the peninsula. It was removed in 1979, not as a prelude to war, but in consequence of the Camp David accord that regularized relations between Egypt and Israel, and led to the return of the Sinai to Egyptian control. In evaluating the general effectiveness of peacekeeping forces in the Sinai, it is useful to observe the rythym of war across the peninsula: two wars within seven years before UNEF I was established, ten war-free years while UNEF I was deployed, two wars within six years after it was withdrawn, and over twenty years without war since UNEF II was put in place. Obviously the fundamental reason for the persistance of peace in the Sinai since 1973 has been the mutual decision of Egypt and Israel to refrain from war as a means of resolving their differences. Nevertheless, it is notable that in spite of--or, possibly because of--the 1967 experience, both parties welcomed the UNEF II role, which ended only upon normalization of relations. After the 1973 war was ended by truce, another observation element, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Forces (UNDOF), was deployed i

Category: Foreign - U